This application relates to antimony oxometalate complexes that have activity on viruses. Heterapoly oxo-metalate complexes have been widely used as catalysts. There have been some limited studies into antiviral activity of some antimony oxo-metalate complexes. Some heteropoly anions (HPA) have been studied and a few of them like HPA 23 have been shown to have some effect as antiviral agents. The disadvantages of HPA 23 are its relatively high molecular weight and high toxicity.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a condition in which an acquired deficiency of certain leukocytes results in a variety of infections, some forms of cancer and nervous system degeneration caused by a virus which infects T cells and is transmitted in body fluids.
There are two related but distinct viruses that can cause AIDS. They are presently designated HIV 1 HIV 1 and HIV 2. The genomes of HIV-1 and HIV-2 are only about 50% homologous at the nucletide level, but the two viruses contain the same number of complement genes and appear to attack and kill the same human cells.
The two immunodeficiency viruses are retroviruses in which the genetic material is RNA rather than DNA. These viruses carry with them an enzyme called Reverse.Transcriptase, a polymerase that catalyzes transcription of viral RNA to double helical DNA. This viral DNA may exist in an unintegrated form in the infected cell, or a copy called proviral DNA may be integrated into the genome of the infected cells.
Proviral HIV may persist in a lateral form or encode messenger RNA and genomic RNA to result in formation of new virus particles. HIV also causes significant damage beyond the immune system, mild to severe neurological systems are often manifested as a progressive dementia. The symptoms are referred to as AIDS encephalopathy and sometimes occur before the patients develop AIDS itself.